Suspension issues

[Boost All The Dollys]

So, I’ve been driving my Dolomite around for the past month while my other car is getting through it’s MOT and now that has, I can put it away to work on over winter and sort through the myriad of small issues you only find from driving about. And one of them is the rear springs

Does anyone know there any stiffer rear springs out there? My current set up has some very old Spax adjustable height/compression shocks with the Rimmers uprated 1” drop springs on the front and standard Gaz shocks on the rear with the Rimmers uprated 1” drop springs. The lower trailing arm is polybushed but the upper one is rose-jointed/ball-jointed

The front feels pretty good, maybe a tad stiff but I have enough other issues that I don’t want to start playing with them before sorting it out. My main issue is the rear. It feels far too soft and when I have just one person sat in the back, it basically compresses all the way to riding on the bump stop. Which wouldn’t be much of an issue except that the axle has ripped the bump stop off going over an bump and the pinion flange is now smacking into the propshaft tunnel. Even when the bump stop was on, there was only about 1-1.5” of clearance. Is this sitting too low? It also feels a tad floaty on the rear

I’d be much appreciated in any advice you can give

Thank you

[Carledo]

It's a bit tricky to diagnose from this distance!

But even when the Carledo and later the 1500 were at their lowest (much TOO low in the 1500's case) I never had issues with the bump stop (or ever even touched it AFAIK)

My instincts say that it's way too low and the rear shox are fubared.

I have a love/hate relationship with rear suspension on Dolomites! When building the Carledo, I fitted stock Sprint rear shox and springs and they jacked it up 3" and made it near solid with predictably horrible results in roadholding (or lack thereof) With Gaz ASPs and stock Toledo springs, it works really well, though I never carry anything much in the boot and it doesn't HAVE a back seat! But with the Gaz set at only 5 clicks from full soft it FEELS firm when you push down on it and doesn't travel far.

With the Sprint (Dolomega) which is a much heavier car than the Carledo (maybe upwards of 400kg heavier) which is fully trimmed out, DOES have a back seat and often has stuff in the boot (sometimes quite heavy stuff) and which rides on new but standard spec rear springs and shox, it's MOSTLY OK when it's just me on board, big bumps upset it and make my 15s scuff the arches. But any weight in the back seriously makes it sit down and wallow, a trait I put down initially to possibly wrong (too soft) springs so I swapped out both springs and shox for new standard spec Sprint stuff and it made precisely NO difference at all!

The BIG problem is that Rimmers, (God bless them) list a number of different rear springs, standard, standard length uprated, shortened and uprated and "Italian market spec" (whatever THAT is!) but NONE of these options carry any actual dimensions or poundages. SO how the devil are you supposed to KNOW what you need?? This is NOT helped by the fact that even the factory shop manual doesn't have any data on what "standard" rear spring spec is. So we are basically fishing around in a dark cellar for a black cat that isn't there! What I HAVE found out, is that even "standard" rear shox come with at least 3 different height spring platforms (depending on who made them and sometimes which model they were for) and, back in the day, your average garage wan't too concerned about matching new with old or even side to side! So it's possible there are several factors working against you here!

Chris Witor makes some cracking springs for Stag and Triumph 2000 that are "progressive" ie the harder you load them, the stiffer they get. I've used them on several cars and they are the mutts nuts. But he has no plans for a Dolomite version AFAIK. Which is a pity!

When I get around to it (sometime next year) i'm going to try the brothers "standard length uprated" rear springs and if THAT doesn't work to my taste, add a pair of ASP Gaz. I've GOT to do SOMETHING as SWMBO wants to get a small caravan and I don't fancy towing with the ballhitch scraping the ground! It seems to me, that shox have a big effect on spring rates and that you have to set them up as a pair to get what you want. But it's all trial and error cos there's NO reliable data!

Steve